Anxiety disorders (including PTSD) are rather common after robbery, assault, and severe (burn, amputation, etc) injury.
Several things complicate dealing with the employee, and in order, they are:
_ Symptoms may not emerge for several weeks (and sometimes for several months)
_ Their emotional complaints are ignored by those treating the injury
_ The employer and coworkers minimizes and sometimes mock such complaints
_ The patient and his/her family lack understanding as to why these symptoms occur.
_ Diagnosis and treatment are almost always postponed to save costs.
Most often, these patients should not return to the store, department, area, building or site of the trauma.
There is a process called redintegration in which a small cue (sound, smell, sight of location or equipment) can and will trigger overwhelming anxiety.
It is far easier to have this patient work at a different Burger King, a different company location or even a different job.
At the same time, they need to be desensitized so that it is the *event* and not the setting that threatens them.
